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Through the Purchase from Africans for Africa programme (PAA Africa), the FAO has been engaging in providing technical support to African Governments for building adapted and operational public food procurement methods from smallholder farmers for school feeding. …

Background: The issue of menstrual hygiene is inadequately acknowledged and has not received proper attention. Use of sanitary pads and washing the genital area are essential practices to keep the menstrual hygiene. Unhygienic menstrual practices can affect the health of the girls and there is an increased vulnerability to reproductive tract infections and pelvic inflammatory diseases and other complications. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene among high school girls at Nekemte town, Oromia region, Western Ethiopia. …

Background: Worldwide, about 50 % of all new cases of HIV occur in youth between age 15 and 24 years. Studies in various sub-Saharan African countries show that both out of school and in school adolescents and youth are engaged in risky sexual behaviors. School-based health education has been a cornerstone of youth-focused HIV prevention efforts since the early 1990s. In addition, peer-based interventions have become a common method to effect important health-related behavior changes and address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. …

Despite progress in expanding access to education for girls globally, important barriers remain. Girls’ success in school – and after leaving school – is determined in part by characteristics of and factors in her household and community. Many policies and programs are based on an assumption that continued progress toward gender equality in education is hampered by early marriage and adolescent pregnancy. While education and age at marriage (and pregnancy) are positively correlated in many settings, evidence of a causal relationship is more limited. …

Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys for eleven countries in sub-Saharan Africa,the authorestimates the effect of local HIV prevalence on individual human capital investment. The authorfinds that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced human capital investment: living in an area with higher HIV prevalence is associated with lower levels of completed schooling and slower progress through school. These results are consistent with a model of human capital investment in which parents and children respond to changes in the expected return to schooling driven by mortality risk.